I just put a fluorescent light on top of my tank for my goldies. Will this help them to regain some of the color they lost or will it make any difference at all? I have a black moor that is now orange and no black. I also have one that used to be mostly white with an orange stripe down his back but now he is all white. I know that goldies revert back to their natural coloring but was wondering if light helps them. They eat ProGold and peas and spirulina flakes. Thank you.

HI JinLamb, well I have no real evidence of what I'm about to tell you, except this is my experience with this matter.

I have an orange and black oranda, all her fins and gills are black. I bought her like this. Several days after I brought her home she started losing her black. It started lightening, fading is a good word. I searched and even posted here for some advice on how to stop this. Members here and on other boards explained to me that black is the most unstable color and unless a fish is born with the genetics to be black their black color will eventually turn orange or white.

There was a member that had heard that sun light or even having the tank light on for longer hours might help stop the fish from losing the black coloring. So out of desperation I bought a timer for the light on my tank and it is on from 6am to 10pm every day. Since then she has not lost any more black. The black that faded is still that way but she has not lost any more.

Now this is only my experience. I can not prove that the light is what helped. She could just have the genetics to have the black she now has. In any case that is my story.

Good luck.
Laurie

Thank you LaurieP. I wonder if it makes a difference if it is natural light vs fluorescent lighting? Huh. Anyway I appreciate you taking the time to answer my post. I just love the way it looks in the tank with that light on! I can't believe it took me this long to get a light on it! Oh well, now I know.

The member (and I can't for the life of me remember who it was) said that natural sun light works best. But putting the tank by a window causing other problems, algae, heat and we don't want those probs. So I just tried it and it worked. Who knows......

Laurie

PS you are welcome.

This may not be correct (and I invite anyone to correct me if it is not), but I heard somewhere that incandescent bulbs are closer to natural sunlight than flouresent bulbs (their wave lenghts are the same lenght or something). Incandescent bulbs are a bit more expencive, but they might be worth the cost. If light stops colour from fading, my guess is that the colour fading is caused by a vitamin D deficiency. Like most living creatures, goldies need vit. D, which is recieved from light.

If you want lighting that's the same type as sunlight, you want a full-spectrum flourescent light. This is the kind used for growing plants, and that people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder use in the winter when they aren't getting enough sunlight to keep them from getting depressed. I don't know anything about the effect of different types of lighting on goldfish colors, but your best bet would be to try a full-spectrum flourescent since its similar to sunlight. They are expensive lights unfortunately. <_< I have them on my tanks because I have plants. My fish are all the same colors as when I got them, but then I don't have any with a typically unstable coloration either, such as black markings.

Thank you everyone for your input. I appeciate it.